a figment of reality's imagination

Archive for the tag “Chase Novak”

This book seemed to hold some promise as I read the blurb on the back, an interesting plot that had me chomping (excuse the pun, somewhat) to read it (even despite the second book I got from the library which really looked to be the one to tickle my fancy) however despite good descriptive writing it failed to excite me.

This is a shame as there were bits here and there that really got the pages turning, but then as it reached a crescendo it hit like only an anticlimax could.

Alex and Leslie have everything; a huge house in New York, he a partner in a law firm, she a publisher. Money, old money, from his side keep them in a lifestyle they become (and who wouldn’t?) accustomed to except for one glaringly obvious hole. They can’t have kids. And while medically, and fertility-wise they are in full working order producing an ‘heir’ to the Twisden roll of honour is a pipe dream despite all the money and experts in the world…

…until a chance meeting in a park where they catch up with a couple from the same infertility support group, she fit to burst with child. As men do, negotiation takes place and Alex and Les get details of the doctor involved so he can work in the same law firm. Seems reasonable…

Flying to some bum-fuck town in Slovenia they meet someone who appears to be a cross of Dr Krippen and Dr WHo, a strange man with a fool-proof fertility plan, and after he basically rapes them with his syringes it has miraculously worked…

But all is not rosy in the upper-class reaches of parenthood – sure, there are twins (with a third ‘killed’ at birth) – the second book takes us ten years later where the kids are locked in their rooms at night, free from harm, but not of fear…

…what is it they fear? The one thing they shouldn’t.

Again, good premise, badly executed. Worth a read if the theory of fucking around with DNA is your kind of thing but if you are like me and run to the safety of your bed after you flick the hallway light off, then even this isn’t going to have you checking under the mattress tonight.